Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - down with gears and down with freewheels

so, i'm visiting my parents here in the states and a friend
tells me about a charity ride here in the bastrop, texas area
and that i should ride too. well, i wasn't able to bring my bike,
but he says it ok, he can lend me a road bike. now, i haven't
ridden a freewheel of any type in over a year and a half, so i'm
a bit leary.
yesterday he droped the bike off and i thought i could get some
time in on the bike before saturday. well, i put some track pedals
on it, but i don't have the clips yet (in the mail). i went for a short
ride and at one point got out of the saddle (for the fifth or sixth time)
and the chain slips ...then my foot slips from the pedal and i fuking
eat it and the bike flips knocking the rear wheel out of true and
breaking a little peice of plastic/carbon off of the brake/shift lever.
granted, this might not have happened if i had the clips and
straps, and maybe if it was my bike, i would know it better.
but this kind of shiit doesn't happen on my track bike and if i was
to crash there wouldn't be little crappy parts that would break so
easily.
...as for the freewheel, it just feels messed up, like i have no control
over the bike. i know with a fixed gear one must concentrate on his/her
surroundings more, but with a freewheel and gears one must mess with
a bunch of other shiit just to ride...

...fuk that, i want my track bike back.

maybe you should just take it easy

It sounds like you slipped off the pedal. Those are the same with gears of not.

The chain should not slip that much on any bike. I would have it looked at before riding it again. The number of broken teeth, bashed faces, etc. posted on this forum suggests this stuff does happen on fixed gear bikes, as well, unfortunately.

...maybe, its just no fun when i know how it is with a fixed gear, no worries.
now i'm afraid to really put power into the pedals.

My ice bike has gears, because otherwise I just can't push those big fat studded tires uphill through slush and snow, nor go fast on the clear flats and downhills.
The rest of the time, most of the time, I ride my very fast and light fixed gear bike.

When I get on the geared bike, with its freewheel, I initially feel out of control.
After riding all summer on my fixed gear, I feel anxiety on the geared bike for the first few rides.
Now that the weather has started to improve, I go back and forth between the two bikes, riding the fixed gear on days when I feel totally assured of not encountering any ice, and riding the ice bike on days I have doubts, especially when I work nights.
When I regularly go back and forth between the two, as I do now, I feel comfortable with both of them.
However, give me a week of fixed gear only, and the freewheeling geared bike feels very unsafe and imprecise.

Gosh, I love my fixed gear bike.
If my wife knew, she wouldn't let me ride it.

I love riding my geared bikes. It's working on them that's a pain in the @ss.

There's a place for gears and freewheels. When I want to work my self out quick I take a fixed gear bike out, when I want to go far... say to the lake and back [35 miles round trip] I take my road bike.

There is something I wanted to share with you guys by the way and it kinda epidomises my dislike for conversions. Here you see my 1939 Rudge. Its uniquness though comes from the AFTERMARKET 3 speed freewheel. Yes, it was born a single speed but at some point gears were added. Now gosh why would someone have done that.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/SirWompus/misc/Bikes/Picture1325.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/SirWompus/misc/Bikes/Picture1324.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/SirWompus/misc/Bikes/Picture1258.jpg

When is this Bastrop ride? I can lend you my new fixed and I can ride my road bike..

Congratulations OP, you suck at riding a bike.

Congratulations OP, you suck at riding a bike.

Either that or the bike sucked. One thing's for sure, you can't negotiate a 50+mph mountain descent with 40mph curves at max speed on a fixed. All bikes are good.

I've said it before, and I"ll say it again, this is EXACTLY why I NEVER loan out bikes. Period.

Either that or the bike sucked. One thing's for sure, you can't negotiate a 50+mph mountain descent with 40mph curves at max speed on a fixed. All bikes are good.
i can. but only if it is an njs bike and an njs hill.

I've said it before, and I"ll say it again, this is EXACTLY why I NEVER loan out bikes. Period.
in my mind when i read this i pictured a big old cartoon man with a nasty furrowed brow and a bottom lip that goes over his top lip just stomping around going "huf huff huff!"

..then my foot slips from the pedal and i fuking
eat it and the bike flips knocking the rear wheel out of true and
breaking a little peice of plastic/carbon off of the brake/shift lever...

Glad it wasn't MY bike you were borrowing.

OP: so the the bike threw the chain and that's why you ate it? WTF does "the chain slips" mean? If you were trying to shift gears in a silly way on a loaner bike, out of the saddle, then you were looking for it. If it just threw the chain with no warning, something is wrong with the drive train setup => owner's bad. He should have told you to take some care. Or, you should have known better yourself.
Either way, freewheels and gears are great things, you just have to know how to use them.

in my mind when i read this i pictured a big old cartoon man with a nasty furrowed brow and a bottom lip that goes over his top lip just stomping around going "huf huff huff!"


hahahah. Nice.



Seriously though, this is the second thread in a month or so in which the OP borrows a bike and then proceeds to hurt the poor thing because they don't know how to ride it.

i can. but only if it is an njs bike and an njs hill.

haha!

down with not being able to ride with gears!

Hey, it's not as bad as the "**** shimano" thread from the guy who couldn't set up his front derailleur properly - it's over in the mechanics forum. Somebody told him the problem would still persist if he were to buy Campy... LOL

Congratulations OP, you suck at riding a bike.

+1

Gears are a very dangerous thing!